Disposable, absorbent garments, such as disposable diapers and adult incontinent briefs, have met with widespread use to absorb and contain body exudates and thus prevent soiling or wetting of clothing, bedding and other articles. Commercially available disposable diapers, for example, are unitary preshaped and prefolded garments which include a moisture-impervious backing layer, a body contacting layer or liner and a moisture-absorbent core therebetween. Elasticized leg openings are formed at the sides of the diaper to improve comfort of the garment and its ability to contain body exudates.
One problem with disposable diapers, incontinent briefs and other garments of the type described above is that the elasticized leg openings have not proven to be entirely effective in retaining body exudates, particularly loose or liquified fecal material. It has been found that such material can leak through the elasticized leg openings because the disposable garment fails to constrain the free flow of the exudate material and no structure is provided to hold such material within the body contacting liner of the diaper. As a result, the exudate material tends to float along the liquid receiving surface of the diaper and work its way past the elasticized leg flaps.
This problem has been addressed in improved disposable garments such as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,704,116 to Enloe and 4,738,677 to Foreman. The disposable garments disclosed in each of these patents include an exudate material containment pocket formed inwardly of the elasticized leg openings on either side of the centerline of the garment. This containment area or pocket is formed by spaced, longitudinally extending barrier cuffs or flaps which are either integrally formed in the body contacting layer of the diaper or formed from separate strips which are adhered to such body contacting layer. If the barrier cuffs are integrally formed in the body contacting layer of the garment, each cuff is formed by folding the body contacting layer upon itself in a longitudinal direction to obtain opposed longitudinal sections of material which are adhered together. One "fold" or barrier cuff is made in the body contacting layer on either side of the centerline of the garment. Alternatively, separate strips of material are folded in half and adhered together to form each barrier cuff, and these cuffs are then bonded to the body contacting layer of the disposable garment on opposite sides of the centerline thereof.
Preferably, an elastic member such as a bead of natural rubber, elastic tape or the like is adhered at longitudinally spaced locations between the opposed sections of material forming the barrier cuffs. These elastic members are bonded in place by ultrasonic bonding, heat/pressure sealing and/or spaced adhesive beads such as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,081,301 to Buell and 4,253,461 to Strickland et al. The elastic member within each flap or cuff forms gathers therealong where the elastic member is adhered thereto, and these gathers help the barrier cuffs to conform to the shape of the wearer for better fit and to prevent the passage of body exudates to the elasticized leg openings of the garment.
One problem with the barrier cuffs or flaps forming the waste containment pockets in the disposable garments described above involves the manner in which the barrier cuffs or flaps are adhered together and/or to the body contacting layer of the garment. As mentioned above, the opposed material sections forming each barrier cuff or flap must be bonded together and the elastic member associated with each flap must be bonded between such material sections. Whether the barrier cuffs or flaps are integrally formed from the body contacting layer of the disposable garment, or the flaps are separately formed and then adhered to such body contacting layer, continuous or intermittent extruded beads of hot melt adhesive are typically employed to effect a bond therebetween. It has been observed that such adhesive bonding techniques, particularly when employed on the nonwoven, fibrous material utilized in forming the body contacting layer of a disposable garment, often results in the utilization of more adhesive than is required. A relatively thick, extruded bead of hot melt adhesive, whether applied continuously or intermittently, is highly viscous and does not readily spread out over the surface of the material forming the barrier cuffs. Because the strength of the bond produced by hot melt adhesive is dependent to a large extent on the surface area of contact between the material to be bonded, a relatively large amount of adhesive is needed to bond the opposed sections of material forming the barrier cuff and to adhere the elastic member thereto.
Another problem with the formation of the waste containment pocket of such disposable garments is that two separate bonding operations must be conducted to form the barrier cuffs or flaps. In one operation, adhesive or other bonding means is used to adhere the opposed sections of material forming the barrier cuffs. A second operation and/or additional bonding equipment is then required to adhere the elastic member between the sections forming the barrier cuffs or flaps. These two separate bonding operations add expense and difficulty to the manufacturing process.